Light Magic
by Charmkeeper
Summary: AU. As an apprentice guardian Sora is expected to fight any servant of the Dark. That includes any person who practices magic, for all magic comes from the Dark, but when his friend Riku, a mage, sets off to defeat a servant of the Dark far greater than himself, Sora can't just let him do it by himself. Can servants of the Light and the Dark actually work together?
1. In My Childhood

Author's Notes: When I finished my last multi-chapter story, a friend of mine told me to take him on another ride. I eventually agreed to write another story for his amusement. This is that story. I'm going back to my sort of AU roots, though not to my fandom roots, and putting this out there. It's a Kingdom Hearts character story, with Kingdom Hearts influences, but the setting and character roles are based much more of off _The Last Apprentice_.

For those of you that are curious, Riku's role is semi based off of Alice in those books, and Sora's role ( to a lesser degree ) based off of Tom.

I also warn you now, the pairing of this story will eventually be Sora/Riku. Nothing too heavy, but it is my "favorite pairing" from the game series. I didn't write the story based around the pairing itself though, the pairing is a part of the story, the story is not the pairing...I think.

Lastly, this first chapter is written in first person point of view. It is the only chapter that is written like that. It's not my strongest area.

Enjoy!

* * *

The years of my childhood have always held the best memories for me. It was such a simple and carefree life, with my parents and my two best friends; Kairi and Riku.

Kairi was always special, she was the only girl in the village that wanted to play with the boys. Where other girls wanted to sit and play dolls, or talk about their future husbands, Kairi liked to run and jump, and she was good at it too, she could always keep up with me, and when she really tried, she could even give Riku a run for his money. One of the things I liked best about her was her smile. She was always smiling, even after her parents died of illness when we were all still very young. I've heard that in towns outside of Destiny, a parentless child would be pushed onto the street, but not here, not Kairi, everyone loved her, and we all relished in taking turns having her in our house. She was never a burden, always a joy.

Riku, on the other hand, was a little different, or maybe a lot different. Kairi was a bit of a tomboy, but she had her soft edge too, not Riku. If it could be climbed, Riku would climb it, just to show that he could. Most of the families in Destiny have been there for generations, but Riku and his mother moved into town when Kairi and I were three, and Riku was four. I remember many a time when Riku's mother would bring of sweets to eat with the biggest smile on her face. I didn't know exactly what a midwife was back then, but that was what Riku's mother did with her time, and I know there are women in Destiny that owe their lives to her. They were outsiders, and I've always known that they were closest with each other, but I never felt like they didn't belong with us. Different wasn't bad, not then.

In my childhood, my life was filled with simple joys, but those joys, and my childhood, ended when I was ten years old. I remember it being right after Kairi's birthday when Squall came to Destiny. Squall's the region's guardian, a person who keeps the creatures of the Dark at bay. They dedicate their lives to fighting the Dark, giving themselves over to the Light, but being a guardian is not something one can do forever. Everyone grows older, and at some point a guardian is expected to find an apprentice. That was what Squall had come to town for, an apprentice.

When he first arrived, I'd fully expected him to pick Riku. My best friend had always had a sort of wanderlust, and being a guardian meant a lot of travel. Not only that, but Riku had always been everything I was not; strong, fast, hard working, and ambitious. I remember the thought of losing my friend had saddened me, but I had also been excited for him, because it would have been everything he could have wanted...

...But Squall chose me, saying I had the Light and the potential "senses" for the job. That surprised me, but what he did after that still shocks me to this day. In all my years, my town had never been attacked by the Dark, to my knowledge we were all fully exposed to the Light, but Squall said otherwise that day. He pointed his finger at Riku and his mother, and he told us that his mother was a witch, a servant of the Dark, and that Riku was a child of the Dark, destined to one day bring great chaos, if he was not stopped here.

I remember desperately pulling at Squall, trying to talk sense into him. This was Riku! This was my friend! He'd never hurt anyone! His mother had saved lives! How could she possibly be evil and dark?! But my pleas fell on deaf ears. Riku somehow got away, but his mother was...not so lucky.

I had left Destiny with tears running down my face, my heart heavy with loss, and the truth is, I've never really forgiven Squall for what he did to Riku and his mother. I think he knows that, but even so he'd been a good master to me, and I can't bring myself to hate him, even for Riku.

It takes seven years to complete a guardian apprenticeship, I was ten then, I'm fifteen now. Just two more years.


	2. A Dragon

Author's Notes: Second chapter! First chapter in third person.

I'm trying to write this story in a cliffhanger sort of way. Not every chapter will be like that, but I know that these first few will be cliffhanger type endings. Fair warning. If you don't like that sort of thing, this story is NOT for you.

Otherwise, enjoy!

* * *

"Are you ready to go, Sora?"

Being Squall's apprentice had always meant going places with him. It wasn't something Sora terribly minded, seeing other places in the world, he didn't even really mind the job that he had started to learn the day that Squall had chosen him. Being a servant of Light was what all children were told they wanted to be, and being a guardian was the highest honor among those that served the Light. The only problem was that being a guardian meant directly fighting the Dark, even taking the fight to them...those that confronted the Dark often did not live long lives...

"Sora?!"

"I'm coming!" While Squall called up from the bottom of the stairs, Sora was in his room, checking his bag for what had to be the third or fourth time. His master often liked to tell him what a forgetful person he was, and it was the purest truth Sora had probably ever been given. He was always forgetting something, whether that something was an actual item, or a vital piece of information that would make or break a battle.

The boy shoved the things in his bag around a bit, he had elixirs, he had food, water, and all the little things that Squall was always telling him to remember...

"Sora!""Coming!" Squall was getting impatient, and so Sora grabbed the one thing he needed that would certainly not fit in his bag before running down the stairs to see Squall's scarred face grimacing up at him. Sora only grinned. "I think I remembered everything this time! Even my blade!" The blade he held aloft was a very special sword, so special, that at first his master had not believed that it had appeared in his hands, let alone at such a young age. Sora had known nothing about it, and truth be told, still knew little, but he remembered his master saying that it was called a keyblade, and that they were mystical swords, seven in total, each one unique to its user. It wasn't much, but Sora was proud to have it, and he liked to think Squall was proud that he had it too, even if it never showed on his grumpy face."Good. Strap it on, and let's get going." With that, the older man turned on his heel and walked right out the front door. Quickly, Sora did as he was told, slung his bag over his shoulder and followed him at a quick gait. In general, Sora liked the traveling. It seemed like Squall had never been meant to be stationary, and traveling always made his master a little less huffy, but Sora, if only minimally, always worried about the house. Squall never locked it, and there were servants of the Dark everywhere. Each time they left, Sora wondered if they would come back to a house at all, but such thought always left him soon after they were thought.

Sora always made an effort to be quiet when they were traveling, Squall was never much for conversation, unless he was rattling off some lesson or another, but Sora had never been a quiet person, and the last five years as a guardian apprentice had done nothing to change that. No matter how hard he tried, it was only about a half an hour away from the house before his mouth was open and questions began to spill out. "Where are we going?"

There was a little huff of impatience at the question, but Sora knew that such a question would not be denied. After all, Squall wasn't much of a talker, but he was smart. He knew that Sora needed to know, if he was going to be of any help at all. Squall also knew that Sora wouldn't be quiet until each and every one of his questions was answered. "The natives have a different name for it, but other sections call it the Enchanted Dominion."

Sora frowned in thought. He was supposed to know about all the sections in their region from reading books, but Sora always found reading dry and boring, so he often skimmed the sections he was supposed to read carefully. "That's...the one that the first witch was born in, right?"

"Right," his master responded with a nod. "They normally don't call for help, because there are so many witches, and even more mages than usual, but there's been threats from Maleficent, and while she's always been powerful, it seems like she's gotten more powerful in the last couple of years, and they can't keep her in check anymore. So I've had a letter telling me to take care of it."

"Yeah?" That sounded serious. Even from his skimming he knew that Maleficent was a powerful witch, and an even more powerful servant of the Dark. She was offended easily, and some years beforehand had threatened a princess' life. That whole ordeal had come out to be nothing, if Sora remembered correctly, but it still showed how powerful she really was.

"Yes. Now, Sora, what kind of a witch is Maleficent?"

"Uhhh," Sora bit his lip. Quiz time. He was bad at quizzes, he never seemed to know the answer. "Is...she...a familiar witch?" He thought he remembered reading something about a raven in the book, however many months or years ago it had been.

His answer earned him a glance from Squall, and Sora held his breath. He wasn't sure if that was good or bad. "That's right. She has a raven that she shares her power with. You've been reading more carefully than I thought."

Slowly, Sora released the breath he'd been holding. Praise, even small praise like that, was a rare thing from Squall, so his answer must have put him in a good mood. Now he just had to keep his master that way for the rest of the trip.

It proved to be an impossible task. The trip to the Enchanted Dominion took three days, including several detours to deal with shadow Heartless, a task so "simple" that it was left to Sora and his new keyblade. Each little delay put both of them in a more sour mood, but when they reached the top of the hill that separated Hollow Bastion from the Enchanted Dominion, Sora's heart lightened.

It was such an odd sight from there. It was like he was looking at a perfect representation of how Squall always tried to describe the wold's people to him. Half of it was bathed in perfect light, but the other half, a half that was forested, was completely shadowed, and it seemed like the center, where the light and the dark met, was constantly shifting just a little one way or the other. That was how the world was, according to his master, two sides, Dark and Light, constantly fighting for dominance.

Sora looked at his master, eyes wide, "I assume we're reading toward the dark and scary forest, right?"

Squall nodded, "If you look closely, you'll see the tops of the towers that are her castle. That's where we're headed."

And so it was that they made their way down the hill and into the dank forest, but they couldn't have been in there for more than fifteen minutes before Sora's senses started acting up. He could sense a powerful force of darkness nearby. Though he'd been developing his guardian senses for the five years he'd been with Squall, he still wasn't focused enough to tell exactly where the source of his unease was coming from, but it was strong, and it was somewhere nearby.

"Can you feel that?" He asked his master.

"What?"

"The Darkness. Someone's nearby."

Squall shook his head. "You're probably just feeling Maleficent herself. This is her forest after all." Sora nodded. He wasn't going to fight with the more experienced guardian over it, but he really wasn't sure that Squall was right. The feeling lingered for a little while, but then it disappeared. That usually meant that whatever had been nearby had left, but if it was just Maleficent he was feeling...wouldn't the feeling still be present?

About halfway through the forest a fog rolled in, and Squall made a tsking sound. "Miasma."

"Uh, bless you?"

A sigh was released. "No, Sora. Miasma." The elder guardian looked over his shoulder, but Sora just shrugged. Was he supposed to know what that was? Apparently so, because Squall sighed again. "We just went over this...a miasma is a poisonous gas that witches create to delude or kill intruders. Keeps people away from their territory."

"Uhh, maybe we shouldn't be here then?"

"It's fine. It just means we can't take our time." Sora knew what his master was saying. Guardians, once they started to develop their senses, usually had some sort of a resistance to certain kinds of magic, but while that was fine for Squall, Sora wasn't sure how long he would last. What if he succumbed to the poisonous fog at a critical point in the battle? Sora knew he wasn't the hardest working person, but he last thing he wanted was to be a liability.

Regardless of Sora's worries, they continued through both the forest and the miasma, and to his relief they saw the gates of Maleficent's castle within the hour, and Sora wasn't feeling weird at all.

Through the fog, Sora could see that the castle gate was open. Even Sora knew that was just an invitation to death, not to mention the darkness that he now felt once again, but Squall walked right through the opening, a look of worry on his face. "That's odd..."

"The gate?"

"No. There's no one here." The frown deepened. "According to the letter I received, Maleficent has a small army of goblins at her disposal, but I don't see any of them now." Sora didn't get why that was such a bad thing. Goblins were annoying little creatures of the Dark, but he'd never read about, or encountered, a particularly strong one. The fact that they weren't here meant that they could get straight to the witch without having to drain themselves on goblins. The open gate was still the thing that concerned him.

Sora had been just about to ask where they should look for the castle's keeper when he heard a great cawing sound from above. A quick glance above allowed him to just glimpse a raven as it flew up to one of the castle walls, where a great, dark figure stood. There was no question; that was Maleficent, and that raven was her familiar, they were the source of the darkness he felt, but there a nagging little thought at the back of his mind that told him they were not the power and Dark he'd felt earlier.

Maleficent only allowed him to his own thoughts for a moment, and then she opened her mouth and cackled. It filled every nook and cranny of his mind. "Fools!" Her strong voice boomed. "I have been waiting for you!"

"Have you?" Squall said, his battle personality coming through. As always, Sora knew his master was cool and calm, but there was somehow a certain confidence boost whenever battle loomed overhead.

"Yes! I've known about your presence the moment you dared set foot in my forest! But there is no more need for words! I will kill you now!"

Sora watched in horror as the woman raised her arms high above her head and her shape began to change. Some witches could do that, he knew, especially ones that were powerful enough to keep a familiar, but normally they changed into things like bears, lions, wolves, but what Maleficent changed into was something much more terrifying.

The witch changed into a dragon.


	3. The Heart

Author's Notes: It's appropriate to post this chapter this weekend, right?

Anyway, now you get to see my weakness! Battle scenes. I did pretty well with this one, but there are about five other battle scenes in this story, and I'm just like, "What did I get myself into?"

Warning! This short chapter also ends in a cliffhanger! Enjoy.

* * *

Normally, battles went by very quickly for Sora. There was a moment of quiet between him, an ally, and an enemy, and then, whether the battle actually took a moment or an hour, it was over, and the amount of time that had passed seemed inconsequential. That was the normal thing, but Sora had never faced anything that was five times bigger than he was, let alone something that was at least a hundred times bigger than he was, like the dragon before them. He looked over at Squall, and the look on his master's face told him that Squall had never faced anything quiet like this either, and that he had not been expecting it.

Next, the creature breathed fire.

Fire was something that they had both faced before, but never quite on a scale like this. It was all they could do to get behind a wall or a half broken statue and wait for the heat to pass before daring to poke their heads out. Still in awe, Sora looked at the dragon that had once been Maleficent. How were they supposed to defeat something like that?

_"The heart."_ It wasn't his own thought that rung through his mind, but instead the thought was in someone else's voice completely, a voice that was comfortingly familiar, yet Sora was sure that he'd never heard it before, especially not in his own head. Such voices were not to be trusted...

The great bang of Squall's unique weapon brought Sora's thoughts back to reality. Right. The battle, how were they ever going to win if Sora just stood there? As he drew out his keyblade, his master shot off two more of his projectiles, the first and second shots struck harmlessly against the scales of the dragon's neck, but the third somehow managed to sink itself deep into the creature's eye, and it shrieked in pain, flailing, its limbs crushing walls as it climbed down to the level that they were on.

A moment later, more fire was spewed, and Sora retreated behind his statue again, crouched down as low as he could get. Catching it in the eye had obviously caused pain, but being in pain was not the same as dying, and they had to destroy this witch. If she could turn into a dragon, it was far too dangerous to let her roam free. How could they win?

_"The heart!"_ The familiar, but unfamiliar voice in his head said again, more insistent this time. _"Her underside is vulnerable!_ _Pierce her through the heart!" _The voice made a lot of sense, hearts were a vulnerable spot on almost any creature, but...a voice in his head? Especially one that he was sure he didn't know? It could easily be a spell from the Dark. In fact, there was no other explanation...

_"Idiot! Do you want to die?! Your time is running out!"_ At first, Sora thought the voice meant that the dragon would kill them soon, but after a moment he noticed that he was starting to feel woozy. The miasma was finally starting to take hold, and the voice was right, that did limit his time even more. Maybe it was time to listen to the voice in his head, even if it wasn't his own.

The voice seemed to know what Sora was thinking ( and why not? The voice _was_ in his head ) and, in a less irritated and more panicked tone, continued to tell Sora what he needed to do. _"It's simple, when she's not blowing flame, aim for her heart, and then throw your blade. It will do the rest."  
_

Was it really that simple? It seemed too simple. It was true that the heart was usually the most vulnerable spot, but most creatures had defenses against such things...

_"Hurry!"_

The voice was right. For the moment Maleficent the Dragon had stopped spouting fire, so now was the only chance he'd really have to take a shot, once she started breathing the flames again, it might be too late, the miasma might take full hold. So, with a deep breath, Sora stepped out from behind the statue, keyblade in hand, tried to aim for the dragon's heart, but his hand was shaking. It wasn't fear, the truth was that didn't get very afraid of most things, even when they were life threatening. It was the effect of the miasma. He had taken too long.

Inside his head, the voice tsked at him, and then said, _"Here. I'll help." _Sora wasn't sure what he'd been expecting exactly, but what he got a moment later was something that felt like there really was a hand resting against his own, steadying his aim, and once he was steady, he didn't need the voice to tell him to throw.

It seemed like the instant his blade left his grip the witch-dragon screamed. It didn't roar like a dragon, it screamed, revealing that, in the end, Maleficent had not really become a dragon, but had only changed her shape, like another person changed their clothes.

It hurt his ears to hear the sound, and putting his hands over his ears did nothing to dull it, as though the scream were as much in his head as the voice he'd been hearing was. It was so high pitched and awful, that Sora found himself teetering, and then found himself on his side, before he finally blacked out, without even knowing what had happened to his master...

...Sora sat up in bed to the sound of a great crash right by his ear. It startled him, but, without taking anything around him in, he slunk back under the covers. It wasn't the first time he'd been awakened by a sound that had really only been in his dreams. It was probably still early yet. He could probably get away with another half hour or maybe even an hour before Squall came and pounded on his door...

And that was when he remembered that he wasn't at Squall's house. He sat up sharply again, trying to figure out where he was, but he didn't know. He remembered the fight with the dragon that had really been the witch, Maleficent. He remembered the voice in his head, and how it had helped him...but other than that, his mind was blank. He must have passed out.

He looked to his right, and then his left, and his eyes fell on an open stained glass window. It wasn't the window itself that was interesting though, it what was sitting in the window. It was a boy, about his age. He wore black with yellow accents, his hair was a silver color, and the face...it was familiar, a face Sora certainly knew, but had not seen in years.

In the window, sat Riku.


End file.
